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This is the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Written by Matti Robinson @ 29 Oct 2016 2:00 User comments (8)

This is the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar Apple unveiled this week the next generation MacBook Pro. As you might imagine it is more smaller, thinner, lighter and more powerful than ever before. It also has one completely new feature, the Touch Bar.
Apple celebrated the 25th anniversary of their first notebook by releasing a new MacBook. The new MacBook Pro comes in 13-inch and 15-inch variants with lots of customizability as expected. One thing that separates the cheapest 13-inch version from the other is that there is no Touch Bar in it.

But what is Touch Bar? The Apple's new groundbreaking feature is a touch screen above the updated keyboard with new flatter butterfly mechanism keys. The Touch Bar replaces the old function keys – which are still available on the Touch Bar by pressing the function button – and shows different functionality depending on the application and even inside the applications.

For example, in Safari the Touch Bar can show bookmarks, open tabs or quick links to most used features. In Mail app the Touch Bar shows for example CC suggestions or autocomplete depending what you are doing. The software developers can obviously use Touch Bar in their own way to make the application more intuitive.



On the right edge of the Touch Bar there's a expandable quick links list to most used system settings, such as brightness and volume. You can customize what to show straight from the system settings from where you drop them to the Touch Bar. On the right side of the Touch Bar you can find Touch ID which makes it debut on MacBook as well allowing easier online payment and login.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro is available starting at $1499 with old function buttons, and starting $1799 with TouchBar. The 15-inch MacBook Pro starts at $2399 and features always the Touch Bar.




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8 user comments

129.10.2016 19:05

Apple have a history of making nothing sound like something but this time it really is nothing sounding like nothing. I was hoping for some much more on Thursday.

230.10.2016 00:13

Macbook Pros are incredible devices, though. Any improvements on the specs make it a must have, touch bar or not.

330.10.2016 08:55

Having a touch bar instead of a full touch screen is absolute garbage. I have a macbook pro that i bought late 2015. Damn thing cost me 3k (with apple care). Needless to say, it will be quite some time before I consider buying a newer model. The new version isn't compelling enough for me to even be slightly interested. I would have a windows laptop but I needed to be able to run xcode for some app programming. Comparing models with similar specs between win/lin/mac devices, the prices were very close so it just made more sense to get the macbook pro and dual boot windows vs getting another device and go through the hassle of turning it into a hackintosh.

430.10.2016 21:54

At least they still sell one of the older models with useful ports built-in! ;-) I wouldn't get the basic MacBook unless it at least had a USB-C port on each side. And like the iPhone 7 'normal' headphone adapter being included, for the price of the units, all the MacBooks should at least come with a few basic adapters (minimum, a USB-C to dual USB 3.0 one).

I'll be happy with my mid-2014 13" MacBook Pro w/ Retina Display for quite some time. CPUs haven't been getting that much greater the past few years, so it's going to be sufficient for anything I need it for until it probably has some major malfunction.

51.11.2016 15:54

Originally posted by Rezer:
Macbook Pros are incredible devices, though. Any improvements on the specs make it a must have, touch bar or not.

Um, whut..? At those specs, it should cost half as much or less.

61.11.2016 17:27

The only thing Apple is good for is the huge lack of viruses and spyware. And yes, we do have Macs because of that. However, we have never paid full price and have bought all of our computers used or refurbished.

73.11.2016 05:00

Actually did you guys hear about there bug.

Louis rossman on youtube was showing off the new macbook and while trying to use the new usb ports the machine will stop loading web pages

83.11.2016 09:39

Originally posted by megadunderhead:
Actually did you guys hear about there bug.

Louis rossman on youtube was showing off the new macbook and while trying to use the new usb ports the machine will stop loading web pages


Couldn't have happened to a more deserving over-expensive pile of transistors, imo.

Edit -> Jeebus, both the USB and wifi fail o.O'
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 03 Nov 2016 @ 9:40

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